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OCCASIONAL DIARY 

BY X 



'THE CHILDREN OF 
THE RENAISSANCE 



SCORNED NARROWNESS 
OF OUTLOOK’ 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSfR 









AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 

BY X 

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'the. children of 

THE. RENAISSANCE 



SCORNED NARROWNESS 
OF OUTLOOK' 
SIDNEY 


TWENTIETH CENTURY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
1924 










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Jill 30 1324 


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Copyright, 1924, 

by Twentieth Century Publishing Company 
















AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 

FOREWORD 

This “ Occasional Diary ” has been written, as 
the spirit moved, at almost all hours of the day or 
night during a period of ten years (1914- 1923). It 
mirrors the author’s thoughts or feelings at the 
moment of writing. Obvious to the reader, will be 
the author’s interest in Russia. 

Boston, Massachusetts, 

June 1, 1924. 

































AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 
1 - 1914-1917 


The most intangible thing in the world is also the 
most indestructible—an ideal. Dynasties, nations, 
races even, prove at the last but a house of cards. 
But an ideal which the world needs is never lost— 
is more indestructible than the archean rocks. 

Truth also, like the frost which breaks open the 
mighty rocks, always finds its way. 

“ The truth is great, and shall prevail, 

When none cares whether it prevail or not.” 


Who that has seen the colt in the pasture with its 
mother, who that has seen the apple blossoms in the 
spring, who that has seen the stars in the heavens 
can deny God ? . . . . 

“ Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a 
stalled ox and hatred therewith.” 

Honor Mary, who was not troubled about many 
things but who threw herself before Jesus and 
washed his feet. 

Ask yourself not “ How great are the difficulties? ” 
but “ How can my object be attained? ” .... 

Thank God, the blackguard host was turned back 
at the Marne. . . . 


8 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


My deepest beliefs are these: 

I believe in the justness of the universe and in the 
regularity of natural laws; 

I believe in the more or less constant improvement 
of mankind as a whole—as indicated by anthro¬ 
pology and history; 

I believe in a future life. 

Everyone is circumscribed not merely by his 
environment, but still more by his own personality. 
This is his fate. From this, he cannot escape. 
Within this circle, however, is a vast field for in¬ 
itiative— possibilities for development almost un¬ 
limited. 

It has been well said that if we took away all the 
works of man, all the cities, all the works of art, the 
world still would be a wonderful and a beautiful 
place in which to live. 

“ Life takes its color and quality not from the 
days, but from the dawns.” .... 

Those of us who have a dual nature, not merely 
good and evil, but practical and artistic, owe much 
to the world. We have received life abundantly, 
and we should give abundantly. 

I never could sympathize with the idea of keeping 
aloof from the world. This is good doctrine for 
nuns and hermits but not for those who would take 
part in humanity’s noble struggle. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


9 


The mountains and the sea—these are the mightiest 
manifestations of Nature. There is something about 
each that is incompatible with meanness or smallness 
of soul. 

My wife has been distinguished above all women 
and most men I have known for the largeness of 
her mind. 

My father was remarkable for his strict sense of 
honor, his humor and his generosity—not only in 
money matters but in all the relations of life. For a 
man with only a slight formal education, he had 
extraordinary powers of expression—both in speech 
and in writing. 

My mother was distinguished for her great firmness 
of character and for her almost fanatical devotion to 
what she thought was right. 

Almost all the people by whom I have been sur¬ 
rounded or with whom I have come closely in con¬ 
tact have given me of their best. 

To erect, or cause to be erected, a beautiful 
building devoted to the public service—this was one 
of the ambitions of my youth. 

If Jesus was God and not man, the Temptation 
on the Mount was meaningless. “ Get thee behind 
me, Satan, ” is sublime only when said by a human 
being. 

February 3, 1917 —Relations with Germany 



IO 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


broken! Thank God, we are on the side of the right 
at last. 

March —To Professor Paul Milyukov: God bless 
you, God help you! May the Angel of Righteous¬ 
ness and Power be with the great Russian democ¬ 
racy! .... 

March —This is one of the great moments of 
history. Every generous soul, and especially every 
generous soul in this great democracy, should wel¬ 
come this hour. The regeneration of the great, 
patient Russian people, apparently under leaders of 
intelligence and moderation, and the approaching 
victory of the Entente Allies seem to point toward 
a new day. 

I have always claimed that, for a hard struggle, 
a vital democracy is immensely more effective than 
an arbitrary government. This was true in the case 
of the Athenian democracy at Marathon and Salamis, 
in the case of the Roman Republic against the 
Carthaginians, in that of the Dutch against Spain, 
in the case of the Swiss, in that of Italy under 
Cavour and in the case of our own Civil War. The 
instinct of the great mass of the people, in a vital 
democracy, is likely to be right and its will is likely 
to be irresistible. 

Let us hope that out of the fires of this great war 
will come also its full compensation—the emancipa¬ 
tion of the German as well as all other people from 
political subserviency and intellectual slavery. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY u 

Let us hope also that our President will now 
place this country boldly on the side of the right— 
instead of letting us lie like a ship in the offing, with 
its sails idly flapping. 

April—In this hour, God Almighty and the Angel 
of Opportunity have descended to this old earth. 

May, 1917 —This is one of the most wonderful, 
romantic times in the history of the world. The 
United States, England, France and Russia joined 
in the War for Democracy! 


12 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


II—1918-1919 

March, 1918 —The expansion of Russia bears a 
far greater resemblance to the expansion of the 
Anglo-Saxon race in America, across the Allegheny 
Mountains, than it does to the expansion of the 
Roman Empire. The latter was not primarily the 
movement of a race but rather a conquest of other 
races by force of arms. It extended the Roman 
authority, the Roman law, the Roman system, but 
not to an important degree the Latin race. Not 
until the Germans came down into Italy did the 
true mixture of peoples take place. The extension 
of the Roman Empire was, so to speak, a superficial 
rather than a fundamental movement. 

The extension of American authority over the 
West, however, and the spread of the Empire of the 
Tsars were based mainly on great movements of 
populations—reinforced, in each case, by unusual 
fecundity of race. The colonization of the Russian 
plain by the Slavic race has its counterpart—on a 
smaller scale and occupying a shorter period—in 
the American “ Winning of the West.” 

In addition to this fundamental race movement, 
there was in each case a considerable amount of 
“ conquest,” in the usual sense of the term, for the 
purpose of rounding out and making self-sustaining 
the territories of the two nations. Examples of 
this in the case of the United States are the acquisi¬ 
tion of Florida and of the territories in the Southwest 
obtained through the Mexican War and, in the 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


i3 


case of Russia, conquest of the Baltic Coast and the 
shores of the Black Sea. Just as possession of the 
central belt of North America, from ocean to ocean, 
was essential to the safety and success of the United 
States, so possession of Eastern Europe from the 
Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas was essential 
to Russia. 

Fundamentally, however, the expansion in each 
case was racial rather than merely territorial or 
political. This fact, it is needless to say, in the 
case of Russia as in that of the United States, is a 
source of great strength. The colonization of the 
Russian plain, as Professor Mavor says, is the central 
fact of Russian history. Let us never forget this 
central fact in estimating the permanence of the 
Russian State or in trying to forecast its future 
development. 

Just as in the “ Winning of the West ” there was 
developed the American frontier type, so in the 
colonization of the Eastern European plain there 
was developed the type known as the “ Great 
Russian.” The Great Russians have long been, 
and are now, the dominant stock in the former 
empire of the Tsars. 

The comparison of the Russian Revolution with 
the fall of the Roman Empire—made by no less well 
known a man than Charles R. Crane—seems to me 
very superficial. The slow decay and disintegra¬ 
tion of the Roman Empire bears almost no resem¬ 
blance to the movements culminating in the Russian 
Revolution. What has taken eleven to thirteen 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


14 

hundred years to build up does not fall to pieces in 
one. Furthermore, the Russian people, instead of 
being decadent, are underdeveloped. They have 
the physical characteristics of a coming race. 

The true analogy of the Russian movement is 
with the French Revolution. As the French Revolu¬ 
tion was the culmination of the reaction from the 
absolute, “ protective ” system (see Buckle) of 
Louis XIV, so the Russian Revolution was the 
culmination of the reaction from the complete 
autocracy of Peter the Great. 

Is it possible that, when the Germans have 
attained a free government at home, their penetra¬ 
tion of Russia will prove of benefit to Russia ? The 
Germans may give to that country a certain order, 
efficiency and back-bone which the Russians lack. 


April—In order to understand the present Rus¬ 
sian situation, we must know Russia historically; 
and we must be familiar with the French Revolu¬ 
tion. 

April—Spring is more welcome than autumn. 
The promise always should be greater than the 
fulfillment. 

June —The saying of Emerson, “ Man is not here 
to work, but to be worked upon,” has been very 
vivid to me in these June days of the Great War. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


IS 

A voice, a hand and a flag seem to be giving the 
command, “ Forward.” .... 

Tears are in my eyes half the time. * . . . 

Am examined with the idea of getting a commis¬ 
sion in the Artillery. Thought my experience in 
Battery A would help. My eyes, as in the Spanish 
War, throw me out. 

July —The last week in June (1918) and the 
first week in July have been for me the time of the 
greatest exaltation in my life. My imagination is 
so white hot that I seem to see physical images of 
what inspires me. I go to New York and Washing¬ 
ton with the possible idea of going to Russia with 

a Government commission. . . . Miss S- 

leaves for France about July 31. She is to be with 
the Red Cross in Paris. 

Washington, July 4 —Attended Independence 
Day exercises at the foot of the Washington Monu¬ 
ment. A beautiful, clear, warm day. Lord Read¬ 
ing, the British Ambassador, was present. Mon¬ 
sieur Jusserand, the French Ambassador, predicted 
that when next this day was celebrated, Germany 
would have been defeated. 

I hold in the business about seventy-five thousand 
dollars worth of Russian bonds. The repudiation 
of these bonds by the Bolsheviki has hit me hard. 
Yet the money loss—whatever it may prove to be— 
is more than made up by my increased knowledge 


16 AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 

of and interest in the Russian people. I want to be 
counted among those who would sacrifice a good deal 
to help Russia. 

For never, in the history of the world, has there 
been a nation of greater possibilities, of richer 
endowment—not only physically but intellectually 
and spiritually—than Russia. Her magnificent liter¬ 
ature and music—of compelling sincerity and pas¬ 
sion—her rich yet simple art, including the kustarna , 
the strength, patience and humility of her people, 
their brilliant individualism—all these excite love 
and admiration in Americans. 

Moreover, Russia probably soon will pass through 
a period of economic development similar to that 
through which the United States passed in the 
generation following the Civil War. The vast 
Russian territories and the colonization of Siberia— 
similar to our own “ Winning of the West ”—are 
other features of resemblance to the United States 
and its history. Now that Russia has thrown off 
its medieval autocracy, there seems no barrier to a 
complete mutual understanding of the two great 
peoples—the peoples who, through their numbers 
and their resources, hold in their hands the future 
of the civilized world. 

Bolshevism is simply the crisis of the disease of 
revolution. It is like the crisis in pneumonia; 
when it is safely passed, the patient will recover. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


i7 


Anyone who has felt passionate idealism and love 
can understand the risen Christ. In such a mood, 
the spirit is more real than the flesh. To his devoted 
followers, the risen Lord was more truly present 
when he had added to their love by his agonized 
death. To their eyes, there came a new and a more 
intense vision. Their passionate ardor created a 
Jesus transfigured and immortal. 

Autumn, 1918 —When all hope is gone and you 
have to rely on faith and pure grit, then give me 
people of English blood. 

September 24 —Heard, at a luncheon, Dr. Joseph 
Claire speak on the Russian Revolution. He said 
that the Revolution represented to the peasants and 
the mass of the people the hand of God. They 
revered the Revolution as something religious and 
mystical. Dr. Claire expressed the view that the 
Revolution may prove a greater event than the 
World War. 

September —Only the realities mean anything 
now. All the shams have slunk away. Is a man of 
good family? Let him show how good in his 
country’s service. Is he rich? Let him use the 
qualities that have made him so for the cause of 
civilization. Has he brains? Let him show their 
quality in winning the fight against Ger¬ 
many. 

The Nineteenth Century was an age of individual- 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


ism—sometimes brilliant, unselfish and splendid— 
but nevertheless an age of individualism. The 
Twentieth Century—or such part of it as dates 
from the World War—promises to be an age of co¬ 
operation and of service. 

The great men of the coming generation will be 
not amassers of huge fortunes but those who serve 
best their fellow men. .... 

Out of Russia will come mighty forces, some 
material, some spiritual, huge, bewildering, half 
Western, half Asiatic in their aspect, forces that 
will affect profoundly the future of the civilized 
world. 

As to Russia, 1917—1918: “Believe what the 
years and the centuries say against the 
hours.” .... 

Autumn, 1918 —A. J. Sack, of the Russian 
Information Bureau in New York City, says that 
in the future economic and financial resurrection of 
Russia, Siberia will play the most important part. 
He says: “ The economic development of Russia is 
impossible without Siberia. . . Whoever controls 

Siberia, controls Russia.” .... 

It is one of the great blessings of this War that it 
has made the spirit of service burn within almost 
every heart. 

Like a huge magnet, this War is drawing every 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


19 


human being into its service. Like the cross of 
Christ, rather, it is drawing every one into the 
service of man and God—of God and humanity. 
“ A New Heaven and a New Earth.” .... 

November, 1918 —Let us, in the midst of our 
rejoicings and of deserved enthusiasm for the French, 
stop for a moment to pay tribute to the staunchness, 
the valor and the broad human spirit of the British 
people. Once again, has the stock of the English- 
speaking people proved the anchor that holds and 
the cross that saves. 

One of the great difficulties of the past few years 
has been to decide how best to be of service. One 
cannot do everything. 

My own country, please let me say, I love passion¬ 
ately. After that, I reserve my deepest respect and 
affection for the British people; and after that, I 
love the Russians—even the “ Bowls of Whiskey ” 
(Bolsheviki). 

May I say of myself (and those who wish may 
laugh at my recording this) that here was at 
least “ a heart once pregnant with celestial fire? ” 


Saturday (November 23) —Lyvov intimates that 
Allies should designate Russians to sit at Peace 
Conference. 

December —December, 1918, was a time for me of 


20 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


considerable difficulties and of a deep yet resolute 
dejection. 

December 21 —During the past year and a half, 
all praises have ceased. But my shield shines 
bright to me. Particularly do I feel that, to the 
extent of my ability and opportunity, I have served 
faithfully to win the War and to uphold the hands 
of all those engaged in the same work—especially 
the individual soldier and sailor. I have helped, 
through the Trade Committee and my office, to 
raise about 330,000,000 on Liberty Loans. Every 
one in my family and in my office has pulled to win 
the War. Whatever influence I have had with 
outsiders—in business, in my home town and 
through the press—has been exerted toward the 
same end. I hope to God that I have done some 
good. 

December, 1918 —Mavor (1,466) says of the Slav 
peoples: “‘ They may only be finally conquered by 
extermination and they are too fecund to be exter¬ 
minated. ” .... 

In order to judge a man, we must get his point of 
view—his object in life. Cavour sometimes was 
unscrupulous in his methods but, as to freeing Italy 
from the Austrian yoke and uniting her under one 
government, he was incorruptible and indefatigable. 
Lincoln, in order to save the Union, was ready to 
compromise almost anything else—even slavery. 
President Wilson, in spite of all his hesitations and 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


2 


devious mental processes, does really seem to be 
working to bring widespread democracy and co¬ 
operation. 

The Almighty chooses as His agents the men who 
can do the job—not the men who fulfill all the 
proprieties. Take Jesus—the man, from our point 
of view, almost without faults. He violated almost 
all the conventions, prejudices and beliefs of his 
day. He said: “Pay tribute to Caesar”—to a 
Jew an unpatriotic thing; he worked on the Sabbath 
—a sacrilegious thing; he praised the Samaritan, 
considered by the Jew as beneath him; he set the 
Publican above the Pharisee; he forgave Mary— 
a woman who had sinned—and let her wash His 
feet. 

Late 1918—I believe in the power of personality. 
I believe it can cross oceans to those we love. It can 
speak without words. 

Will Bolshevism prove to be a conflagration which 
may burn half the world ? All experience is against 
that view. Bolshevism may be thought of as a cor¬ 
rective—a violent, extreme corrective—of age-long 
abuses. Outside of Russia, the conditions for its 
development do not appear to exist. 

“ Action and re-action are equal.” When, some 
years ago, George F. Baer, President of the Reading 
Railroad, intimated that he and his kind lived in 
“ a different sphere ” from the rest of us, he made 
inevitable the insistence on the part of the public 


22 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


that it ride all over the world on a street car for 
five cents. 

Sex, as Emerson once said, has been made so 
strong in many people—probably in most men— 
that it seems as if the Almighty wished to take no 
chances about the world being populated. More¬ 
over, sex seems to be the mainspring of all actions, 
good or bad, that rise above mediocrity. 

“We are not here to work, but to be worked 
upon.” Every man is the product of the age in 
which he lives. The greater the man, the greater 
the degree in which he reflects the spirit of his 
age. 

How would we change this world if we had the 
power? How could we improve upon it? I never 
have been able to discover. 

Would we abolish suffering? Then we must 
abolish also generosity, love and mercy—for they 
would not be needed. 

Would we abolish evil? Would we abolish sin? 
Then there would be no need for virtue—or, at any 
rate, it would have no meaning. 

Would we abolish war? Evil as it seems in many 
of its aspects, without it we could never have seen— 
as in the war just ended—the sublime heroism, 
self-sacrifice and love that went with it. We could 
never have seen the world quickened as it has not 
been quickened since the spirit of the Renaissance 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


23 

permeated Europe and the English sea-dogs broke 
the power of Spain. 

Would we abolish inequality? What a flat and 
stupid world it would be if we were all alike—all 
equally good, all equally rich, all equally able! 
There would be no need for striving. 

Would we abolish misfortune, disgrace? Then we 
must abolish the love of a mother for her son— 
unwearying, unchanging, everlasting. 

It is indeed easy to criticise. It is impossible not 
to wonder. But could we have made a better 
world ? . . . . 

As long as a man keeps his character and his 
ideals, nothing can harm him. But how about the 
one who loses even these things? How about the 
one who loses temporarily his self-respect? As with 
individuals, so is it with countries. What shall we 
say of Russia? The angels of love and mercy must 
help them. The spirit of Christ must come to lift 
them up. “ To err is human, to forgive is divine.” 
(Holman Hunt, “ The Light of the World.”). . . . 

I have been asked to attend, as a layman, a 
Unitarian conference in Springfield. (This con¬ 
ference resulted in the foundation of the Laymen’s 
League.) I have, however, declined this invitation. 

I was born and brought up in the Congregational 
Church. As soon, however, as I could think for 
myself, I took up with enthusiasm the rational and 
liberal ideas and the sensible practices of the Uni- 


24 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


tarians. I said to myself: these people are very 
few in number, but they are sincere. They refuse 
to subscribe to what they know is not so. They 
ignore the appeal to the sense of beauty, but they 
speak and act the truth. These are the people 
who will represent the conscience of the nation in a 
crisis. They will stand up to be counted for the 
right—though they perish and the Heavens fall. 

Then came the Great War. And the Unitarians— 
especially the Unitarian preachers—stood up to be 
counted; and a very great number, if not the 
majority, stood up like bleating lambs to be counted 
for peace, peace at almost any price, instead of for 
justice and right. Are we in the same category in 
which the late Joseph Choate placed the “ mug¬ 
wumps ”—the category of people “ educated beyond 
their intellects? ” .... 

December 31, 1918 —A-. She was a brave, 

a generous and a democratic spirit. 

M-. She—that I used to think of (without 

much reason) as Corinthia Jane Kirby Levellier— 
she was a proud, an intelligent and a somewhat 
worldly spirit. 

H-. She was a sweet, an artistic, an unselfish 

and a loving spirit. 

January 1, 1919— What are the strongest things 
in the world? What are the most valuable? What 
the most indestructible? 

Let me tell a story—the story of the honorable 
man and the vultures. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


25 


A thousand vultures swirled around and swept 
down on the man. They killed his wife and children. 
They picked away his clothes. 

“ Can we not take all,” said the chief vulture, 
“ and destroy the man utterly? Let us eat his 
flesh, let us tear out his heart! ” Then they de¬ 
scended again and did all that. 

But a shape rose out of the air. And all the 
thousand vultures picked at it and tore at it to no 
avail. 

Then the shape said: “ You have killed my wife 
and children, and you have destroyed my body. 
But you cannot destroy my soul—you cannot destroy 
me. Try to destroy my patriotism. You and all 
your brood will hover around me for a thousand 
years in vain. Try to destroy my sense of honor. 
It is beyond your pitiful, poor powers—though there 
be ten thousand of you to one. Try to destroy the 
love in my heart. The archean rocks will have 
time to disintegrate before you are through.” 

Then the vultures slunk away, and one by one 
died from too much food and from discouragement. . . 

Early 1919 —Are we like chameleons, taking a 
different color with different people and with chang¬ 
ing circumstances, or are we like the prism which 
reflects at different angles the colors of the spectrum 
—the colors of the divine world ? . . . . 

Early 1919— A certain stage of the War showed us 
one of the greatest flashes of idealism in history. 


26 AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 

We saw the free nations of the world winning their 
fight for civilization. We saw the bright glory of 
France, the heroism and self-sacrifice of Belgium, 
the exhausting sacrifice of Russia and last and 
perhaps greatest the unflinching faithfulness of 
Britain. We saw our own America, after what 
seemed like too patient waiting, and in sympathy 
with the great Russian Revolution, throw its mighty 
forces of men and materials into the scales for 
justice and right. We saw the small nationalities, 
oppressed for centuries, struggle to their feet. And 
we saw, rising above the heat and horror of battle, 
the angel of devotion, love and self-negation— 
“ even unto death.” .... 

As to Russia —It has been said that a purely 
agrarian state is likely to have an autocratic form of 
government. Development of an urban proletariat 
led in Russia to revolution. 

Our soldiers in the Great War held life cheaper 
than liberty and honor. 

“ Do some one thing supremely well, and the 
world will shovel out a pathway to your door.” 
(Emerson) .... 

“ The greatest hell one can suffer on earth is to 
lose interest in life.” .... 

July 13, 1919—1 have believed in nationalism. 
But truly this terrible World War has widened the 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


27 


view and enlarged the soul. Now sincerely do we 
think of the English people as blood brothers, of the 
French as intellectual and political brothers, of the 
mighty Russian people as brothers in material 
possibilities and in matters of the spirit. A new 
Renaissance has come—a new quickening of the 
spirit and a new breadth to the horizon. 

July 1919 —Is not one brave man worth more 
than all the money in the world ? . 

“ I am the son of Liberty; to Her I owe all that 
I am.”—Cavour. 

July 13, 1919 —This—this is the beloved earth. 
Don’t talk to me of a heaven with golden streets and 
pale angels—of a heaven where no one can do any 
wrong. Give me rather my beloved earth—my 
people of flesh and blood, of human weaknesses and 
passions and also of human or divine heroism and 
generosity. ’Tis a long procession, the human one 
—a brave and brilliant pageant. 

Then again do I love passionately the beautiful 
world of Nature—the early morning dew on the grass, 
the steadfast mountains and the mighty, changing 
ocean. 

Is it pagan to be unable to conceive of a better 
world than this? .... 

Late 1919 or Early 1920 —I pray to God that, at 
least in some degree, I may serve His will and, at 
least in some small measure, my fellow men. 


28 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


III—1920 

January 7, 1920 —Since I have been ill, human 
friendship and Divine love seem more real and more 
wonderful than ever before. 

May 30 —What does self-examination tell me? 
What have I been? Idealistic, half practical, half 
a dreamer—loving the beautiful world of Nature 
and of people and loving, too, all the arts—tactless, 
impatient, quick to see the right and the bright 
vision, insistent for the truth, craving the adven¬ 
turous and the unusual and hating the common¬ 
place but actually sticking, with a strange perver¬ 
sity, so far to the orderly and the conventional. 
For ambition for money and worldly success, the 
War has substituted in me ambition for ser¬ 
vice. 

June 1 —(Suggested by Memorial Service at 
North Cemetery, Wayland, May 31.)—We who were 
not in the fighting forces should devote the rest of 
our lives to binding up the wounds of those who 
suffered and helping to heal the hatreds of nation 
against nation. We should devote ourselves to the 
service of God and our fellow-men— to the service 
of the world. 

June —Of my first book. Something besides what 
poor knowledge I have has gone into this book; 
a spirit of love and of service has gone into it. . . . 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


29 


June 14, 4 A.M. —When any art pays more 
attention to the method of expression than to what 
it has to say, then it becomes unworthy and decadent. 
I never liked Walter Pater or “ coloratura ” sing¬ 
ing. 

Same —Tschaikowsky, Overture to 1812, with the 
Great War still gripping our souls, seems a wonderful 
piece of music. When I heard it first, in 1918, it 
sent me into a sort of ecstasy. 

Same —Much of the modern Russian music has 
two strains; the one, plaintive and almost hopeless 
sounding—suggestive of the vast dreary plains, 
relieved by waving grass and passing horsemen; 
and the other, majestic and powerful—a sound 
like mighty marching hosts and a united na¬ 
tion. 

4:30 A.M. —I like “ Finlandia ” of Sibelius, with 
its suggestion of a foggy northern sea. 

4:30-4:45 A.M. — I remember reading in Ruskin 
of some of the medieval sculptors creating in a 
convincing way animals that never existed. All this 
spring, my imagination has been so active as to 
create images that seem real enough to touch. . . . 

4:45 A.M. —Cigarettes are a real solace. I am 
told that, during the War, if a wounded boy was 
taken to the hospital the first thing he asked for 
was a cigarette. 


30 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


5-5:30 A.M. —I take a certain poor pride in my 
service during the Boston Police Strike. I happened 
to be in the first detachment of the State Guard 
ordered to Scollay Square the second night of the 
strike, which was the first night that the troops 
were out. 

We reached the Old State House, I should think, 
about ten o’clock. It seemed less like Boston, 
Massachusetts, than like the Russian Revolution. 
Fires were burning in the street, windows were 
being smashed every few seconds, and a few mounted 
YD artillery officers, with “ tin ” hats, were riding 
in the street or on the sidewalk, and doing their 
utmost to control the crowd. 

With fixed bayonets, we had cleared City Hall 
Square and Court Street, opposite the Old Colony 
Trust Company; and we were stationed a large part 
of the night at the corner of Court and Washington 
Streets. The crowd (I never saw more people in a 
given space) did not put up much of a fight. Ninety 
per cent of the people, I believe, were curiosity 
seekers. There were two or three rushes of an 
almost childish nature up Court Street. Gradually, 
the City quieted down. 

Later in the night—or rather later in the morning— 
I guarded with two others the end of the alley 
running into School Street, opposite the Boston 
Five Cents Savings Bank. 

The next night, with G-, I patrolled a 

“ beat ” in South Boston. I had a key to the nearest 
police patrol box. Dispersing two or three idle 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


3i 


groups was the only work that fell to our lot. In¬ 
cidentally, G-and I were invited to a wed¬ 

ding taking place on the ground floor of a house 
along our beat—an invitation which I attribute to 
the relief of the people at the reappearance of “ law 
and order.” This invitation, of course, we were 
obliged to decline. 

Thereafter, I had various work on the streets and 
at the Armory. For a time, at some hour every day, 
our Company paraded with fixed bayonets through 
all the principal down-town streets. After guard 
duty at various posts throughout the City and at 
Police Headquarters in Pemberton Square, and 
after being held “ in reserve ” a week at the Armory 
(the most irksome service of all), we were put on 
traffic duty. My post was at the corner of Hanover 
and Union Streets. After serving here for less than 
two weeks, I was taken ill and had to be relieved 
from duty. 

For an interesting hour—before the Motor 
Corps was put on regular traffic duty—I 
directed the traffic at the corner of Court 
and Tremont Streets. It was a novelty 
then, and the people crossing the streets 
were most cordial in their appreciation. 

July 8, 192(1 —The best things in the world, as 
has been said so often, cannot be bought with money. 
They can be bought only with love and ser¬ 


vice. 




32 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


Exact Date Unknown —“ The children of the 
Renaissance scorned narrowness of outlook.” (Sid¬ 
ney Lee, “ Men of the Renaissance.”) .... 

August 1 —The Russian Revolution is one of the 
great facts of modern history—of history since the 
Renaissance. It involves not only the economic 
development of the vast Russian territories and the 
political and social evolution of the Russian people 
but the very predominance of the white races in the 
civilization of the world. As in France, the Revo¬ 
lution seems destined—after a short period of dis¬ 
integration—to maintain the integrity of the main 
Russian territories. The predominance of the 
Great Russian and other Slavic stocks always, in 
my opinion, has assured this. The Revolution has 
done more to educate the great masses of the 
Russian people than two hundred and fifty years of 
ordinary schooling. The development of the great 
natural resources of Russia will modify most favor¬ 
ably the racial and national characteristics of the 
Russian people. Moreover, the marvelous fecund¬ 
ity and extraordinary colonizing ability of the 
Russians will hold out the principal hope of the 
continuance of white race supremacy on this planet. 
In this connection, the colonization of Siberia 
by the Japanese must, at all hazards, be pre¬ 
vented. 

Incidentally, the development of Russian natural 
resources will be one of the principal ways through 
which the world will restore itself economically after 
the Great War. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


33 


Is there to be, as in the case of the French Revolu¬ 
tion, a long series of wars by the Russians—carrying 
the Russian arms temporarily beyond the confines 
even of their mighty domain? .... 

Personally, I expect to see later the reunion of the 
weak Baltic States (Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania and 
Courland) and also Ukraine with Great Russia. I am 
not wholly convinced of the permanence even of an 
independent Poland. I think of the Russian people 
—with their marvelous physical, intellectual and 
spiritual characteristics, with their extraordinary 
colonizing powers—as one of the great instruments 
of the Almighty to work out His purposes. Not for 
any small thing has this race been permitted to 
occupy one-seventh of the land surface of the 
globe. 

The Anglo-Saxons and the Slavs, as I believe 
Roosevelt once said, are the hope of the world. 
They will prove to be, in my opinion, the two main 
bastions of white civilization in the future. 

August 2 —The news today is extremely dis¬ 
quieting—alarming even. There is rebellion in 
Ireland. Japan, besides seizing northern Saghalien, 
is placing garrisons in all the principal northern 
ports of Siberia. An alliance between Germany, 
Soviet Russia and Islam is spoken of as imminent— 
if not an accomplished fact. To crown all, the 
entire Moslem world is described as seething and 


34 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


about to burst into flame. Colonel House says that 
never has the outlook in Europe seemed darker— 
“ not even during the worst periods of war.” (See 
Boston Evening Transcript of this date.) .... 

Same—Poland may prove to be the victim of 
German hatred and Russian greed. 

August 3 —The three great migrations in historic 
times were: (1) the migration of the so-called 
German tribes into the Roman Empire; (2) the 
movement of the Eastern Slavs—later the Russians 
—from the region of the Carpathians over European 
Russia and later Siberia; and (3) the English- 
speaking people’s crossing of the Allegheny Moun¬ 
tains and their settlement of our West. 

August 4 —Nobody can make votes with me by 
asking me to turn my face from Europe in her hour 
of anguish—Europe the age-long home of our 
race and the mother of our civilization. 

August 8, 11:10 P.M . —Russia may yet get 
Constantinople. She may also unwittingly assist 
the Asiatic world to free itself from white political 
domination—a result, in the opinion of Lothrop 
Stoddard (“ The Rising Tide of Color ”) to be 
desired even by the white races—that is, for their 
own safety. 

August —The recent World War partook of the 
nature of a race war between Germany and Russia; 



AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


35 


of a commercial war between Germany and England; 
of a territorial war between Germany and France. 
It was a war of expansion by force {Drang Nach 
Osten) on Germany’s part; and in the process, she 
slashed right and left until she brought in even the 
United States. German aggression in 1914-18 
bears some resemblance to French aggression under 
Napoleon I. 

Austria and Germany attacked Serbia; Russia 
came to Serbia’s assistance; France was an ally 
of Russia; Germany attacked France through 
Belgium; then England came in and much later 
(on Germany inaugurating unrestricted submarine 
warfare) the United States. Thus took the stage 
all the principal actors in the great tragedy. 

August 17 —January 1, 1920, when I resumed 
work after three months’ illness, to midsummer of 
the same year was a period for me of new vision. 
I succeeded, in spite of feeling poorly much of the 
time, in getting good results from my daily tasks; 
but I was burning with a new enthusiasm, with a 
new interest in Europe and in the rest of the world. 
Often I felt a sort of religious humility, a dependence 
on the Almighty and a deep reverence for His work. 

This world is in unstable equilibrium, but it is 
alive. The next ten years, probably the next 
twenty-five, will show us new wonders. I must 
transform at least some part of my vision into 
action—into service to God and my fellow-men— 
no matter how small that service may be. 



36 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


October 6, 5-5:30 A.M. —Lord, God, help me to 
serve—with patience, with strength and with love. 

Help me to show reverence for Thy marvelous 
world through at least some service to my fellow- 
men. 

Keep bright as a fire in the forest the love of truth. 

Help me to do some piece of work, according to 
my abilities, that will contribute something to Thy 
world. 

“ If ye have done it unto the least of these, ye 
have done it also unto Me.” .... 

Armistice Day (November 11), 1920 —Let us 

remember those who gave up their lives in the 
flower of their youth. 

“ Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet 
Lest we forget.” 

November 12 —Many of us were thinking yester¬ 
day of the debt we all owe to those who died in the 
War. That debt is perpetual and ever-increasing. 
It can be paid only with service—with service to 
our country and to all the world. God grant that 
our light may not grow dim, or shine for ourselves 
only. 

November 13 —Transcript article speaks of re¬ 
volutionary or partially revolutionary conditions 
prevailing more or less all over the world—especially 
in Europe. The United States, Canada and Argen¬ 
tina are referred to as practically safe from danger of 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


37 


revolution. Apparently, aside from Russia, the 
dark spots are Germany, Italy, England and Spain. 
This situation is described as the result or aftermath 
of the Russian Revolution and of the World War. 


November 14 —Until the other day, I never 
thought of the Puritans and the sailing of the May¬ 
flower in connection with the Renaissance. But was 
not their migration to these bleak shores one of the 
last manifestations of that mighty flowering of the 
human spirit which we call the Renaissance? . . . . 

Same, 11:15 P.M. —Big men, if you know how to 
approach them, are much easier to deal with than 
small men. 

Same, 11:30 P.M. —Unitarian ministers almost 
always are worth hearing. They are likely to have 
sincerity, brains and idealism. If they have not 
these, they have no reason for existence. 

November 17, 3:45 A.M. —How the figure of 
Lincoln grows with the years! That mighty soul, 
developed amongst the conditions of frontier life, 
now commands the respect and affection of men of 
all nations. His life has something of the same 
universal appeal as the life and death of the “ lowly 
Nazarene.” .... 

Same, 3:55 A.M. — I have not read any of the 
novels of George Meredith for sbme time. But as 



AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


38 

I think of them, they seem among the few books 
written before the Great War that are in keeping 
with the best spirit of the War and of much that has 
happened since. 

Same, 4:10 A.M. —I have finished reading re¬ 
cently a Life of Napoleon I. (Rose.) The chief 
impression left on my mind—besides that of the 
stirring times—is of a personality almost superhuman 
in its energy, its daring and its range. Like all great 
men, Napoleon was the product of his Age; but his 
character and career violated too many of the laws 
of God and man to retain a universal appeal. It is 
impossible not to admire, however, not only the 
genius but the dauntlessness of the man in his lust 
for glory and power. 

Same, 4:35 A.M. —“ As ye sow, so shall ye 
reap.” The mirror reflects the face, the face tells 
the life. If you would command the mighty springs 
of generosity, of heroism, of idealism and of love, 
you must first give out those things. If you look 
out on a cramped and material and selfish world, 
you are looking with that kind of soul. 

Same —No man can feel intensely and express 
himself poorly. 

Same, 4:45 A.M. —Most religions insist on a 
reversal of the laws of Nature as the acid test of 
Divine Providence. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


39 


About November 20—One thing troubles me at 
times—as probably it has troubled all men who 
have thought of it. This is the fact that we cannot 
count on the progress of mankind, or of anything 
else in the universe, “ onward and upward forever.” 
The life of the individual, with its childhood, youth, 
maturity and old age; the rise and fall of nations 
and the development and decay of races; the physi¬ 
cal evolution of our planet, as shown by geology, 
and the evidence in astronomy of the various stages 
of development and decline in the other planets and 
the stars; all these facts show that Nature every¬ 
where and in all things has its crescendo, its climax, 
its diminution and its death. Only the First Cause 
of All—the Laws of Nature and the Principle of 
Life—though hidden in unpenetrated mystery, seems 
to go on and work out Its purposes. 

Does the future life take the form of transmigration 
of the soul to another body and possibly to another 
planet? These questions are likely to remain forever 
unanswered to everyone in this life. Instinct or 
conscience tells us the right life, the line of duty and 
the line of progress. 

“ That is all 

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to 
know.” .... 

November 25, 3:50 P.M. —A wise friend said to 
me the other day that, in his opinion, the greatest 
contribution of the United States to civilization had 
been the federal principle of government as embodied 


4 o 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


in our Constitution. He contrasted the comparative 
independence and equality of our States with the 
dominance of Prussia in the union of the German 
States. 

Same, 4:15 P.M. —We cannot too much admire 
the fortitude of our forefathers in crossing the ocean 
and then planting their feet firmly in the wilderness 
that afterwards became New England. With their 
more courtly brothers in Virginia, they sowed the 
seeds of a mighty nation. Both were products of 
the Renaissance. The two streams united in giving 
us the eminent men of the Revolution—Franklin, 
Washington, the Adamses, Jefferson and many 
others. 

Then came the “ long hunters ” and later the 
frontier settlers—first from Virginia and North 
Carolina into Kentucky and Tennessee and then 
from New England and Pennsylvania into Ohio and 
the “ Northwest Territory.” 

It was the Almighty that carried those stout¬ 
hearted Puritans—fit progenitors of a masterful 
race—through that first terrible winter in the lonely, 
sea-bordered wilderness, inhabited by savages and 
wild beasts. 

December 6 —Attended the first anniversary 
of the discharge of the Motor Corps after serv¬ 
ing in the Police Strike. Had supper in the 
Armory, followed by “ movies.” The new traf¬ 
fic squad of the Police was with us. A very 
pleasant occasion. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


4i 


IV—1921-1923 

January 3, 1921, 7:35 A.M .—The two great 
facts of the Twentieth Century from now on are, 
I believe, to be: (1) the economic, financial and 
political leadership of the United States in the 
affairs of the civilized world; and (2) the growing 
importance of Russia. 

January 30 —Mr. B., in his sermon this morning, 
called attention to a point I had not thought out 
clearly before: if everything in our creeds or beliefs 
that could not be acted upon were cut out, a lot of 
“ truck ” would be cleared away. 

Early 1921 —In spite of all the wonderful mechani¬ 
cal inventions of the past hundred years, in spite 
of the increased comfort, convenience and even 
richness of life from many points of view, one cannot 
help feeling that we have lost a great deal in sim¬ 
plicity, in thoroughness, in depth. Of course, we 
would not give up all our glorious gains for a “ Cycle 
of Cathay; ” but there cannot but be in our pride an 
element of alloy. 

I feel that the next ten or twenty years are likely 
to prove almost as interesting as the years through 
which we have just passed (1914-1920). Especially 
important, I think, will be these two developments: 
(1) the changed position of the United States with 
relation to the rest of the world; and (2) the regenera¬ 
tion of Russia. 


42 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


Partly as a result of the Great War, world leader¬ 
ship (held during the Nineteenth Century by Great 
Britain) seems to be passing to the United States. 
Whatever the surface indications at the moment, I 
have faith that our country not only will move into 
that position but will occupy it with credit. 

As for Russia, I believe that we should think of 
the Russian Revolution as a phase in the evolution 
of a great nation—great in territory, population and 
resources and great in possibilities for good. 

Whatever may be the other performances of the 
Bolsheviki, I believe that, like the French in the 
French Revolution, they will maintain the essential 
integrity of the main Russian territories. Especially 
do I feel the importance of the Russians holding 
Siberia against the Japanese. Siberia naturally will 
develop, sooner or later, a large degree of indepen¬ 
dence or autonomy—perhaps similar to the relation 
between Canada and the British Empire; but if 
Siberia is to be settled mainly by Slavs, it will remain 
in some sense part of the great Russian domain. 
Moreover, the Allies have made, I think, a great 
mistake in setting up and trying to maintain the 
weak row of Baltic States. Possession of the Russian 
Baltic coast, control of the northern shore of the 
Black Sea and unrestricted use of the Dardanelles 
are essential to Russia and her future usefulness. 

In a broad way, I feel that American leadership 
and “ quick capital ” and Russian natural resources, 
tolerance and spiritual power are necessary for the 
restoration of the world after the War. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


43 


March 5—Letter to Hon. Woodrow Wilson— 

Dear Sir:—As a citizen (and one who has usually 
voted the Republican ticket), I feel moved at this 
time to express my admiration for the great achieve¬ 
ments of your Administration. 

The passage of the Federal Reserve Act—estab¬ 
lishing what is, I think, on the whole, the best 
modern banking system in the world and one pecu¬ 
liarly adapted to conditions in this country; the 
passage of the Transporation Act of 1920; and, 
above all, the making effective our part in the World 
War constitute a record of constructive work almost 
unrivalled. 

In the conduct of the War, the highly satisfactory 
working of the Selective Service Law, the broad¬ 
minded treatment of the Allies in business and 
financial matters, and the transporting across three 
thousand miles of ocean of two million men in 
fighting condition stand out. 

So also in the handling of the baffling Russian 
situation, the stand of your Administration for the 
integrity of the main Russian territories seemed to 
recognize the immense future importance to the 
world of a regenerated Russia. 

I believe that, whether our people know it now 
or not, we shall be forced by the logic of events to 
play our full part in the world after the War. Then 
almost every one will remember the vision and the 
idealism of an earlier day. 

March —In the War, Canada played the part of a 


44 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


man. Though no coercion by the mother country 
could have compelled her adherence, at the first 
sign of danger, the great ships moved out—carrying 
Canadian soldiers across the Atlantic. The proces¬ 
sion did not cease until Anglo-Saxon ideals of liberty, 
individualism and law were again secure. In pro¬ 
portion to her population and resources, Canada 
made heavy sacrifices. 

With her potential wealth and her probable future 
increase in population, Canada’s splendid record 
for loyalty and self-sacrifice is a helpful factor in her 
financial credit. Like so many other nations engaged 
in the War, however, Canada has been obliged to 
take on heavy financial burdens—that is, heavy in 
proportion to her developed resources and her present 
taxing power. 

March 25, 4:30 A.M. —Lincoln was a great 
soul—magnanimous, unflinching and always taking 
the largest view. He subordinated everything else 
to saving the Union. 

Same —Took to lunch at the Club yesterday 

Major P- of England. He served six years 

in the British Army—a good deal in the East under 
Allenby. Was also at Gallipoli. A very good spec¬ 
imen of an English gentleman. 

Sunday Morning, June 26, 5:45 —One brave 
and honorable man, one generous man with love in 
his heart, is worth more than all the money and all 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


45 


the securities in the world. I believe that the 
Almighty counts it so. Not that great bankers do 
not often have such qualities. Very many of them 
do. But I have more respect for the private soldier 
of the World War, eager to answer his country’s call, 
or the mounted policeman, ready to risk his life for 
another at a moment’s notice, than for a certain 
kind of banker. “ Rich in money but poor in 
character ” is the most pitiful of epitaphs. I have 
enough England and New England in me to believe 
this. 

Same, 6:30 A.M. —In the eyes of the Almighty, 
we must all seem like ants—busy, busy, running 
hither and thither—about what? Yet we all partake 
of the Divine Soul. 

Same —Unity and diversity,wholeness and variety, 
everything connected with or related to everything 
else—this seems to be the make-up of the 
Universe. 

Same, 6:35 A.M. —Some day before I die, I hope 
to understand the “ relativity ” theory of Einstein— 
the German Jew. 

Same, 6:35 A.M. —The love of a mother for her 
son is the most unselfish, most unfailing thing in 
the human world. 

November 18, 1921 —Attended first lecture 
(Lowell Institute) of Professor Paul Milyukov, 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


46 

former Russian foreign minister, on the Russian 
Revolution. 

1922 (Exact date unknown) —The most imper¬ 
ishable thing in all the Universe is an ideal. Al¬ 
mighty God will not let an ideal that is worth while 
be lost. The frost may break open the mighty 
rocks, fire may consume the mountains, the seas 
may dry up; but an ideal is never lost. 

“ I came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister.” .... 

“ Mary hath done the one thing needful.” .... 

We do not need more mechanical inventions so 
much as we need a better sense of the true values of 
human living. 

Russia may contribute to the world the spirit of 
tolerance. (Professor Stein.) .... 

May 23, 1922, 1 P.M. —Life has become a vast 
nuisance of mechanical inventions and petty irrita¬ 
tions. 

May 30, 1922 —Today, we paid reverence to all 
those brave souls who preferred honor to safety and 
duty even to life itself. 

One of the saddest and yet one of the most sub¬ 
lime things in the world is youth laying down its 
life—youth with its hopes, its illusions and its ideals. 

Germany went down to defeat because she out- 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


47 


raged the ideals of civilization. One by one the 
nations of the world joined against her until her 
materialism and her savagery were overwhelmed. 

Europe, the mother of our civilization, turns now 
to her most robust child for help in her time of 
greatest need. 

Now do we need a healing spirit—a spirit of ser¬ 
vice and of co-operation. 

This is one of the great, vital periods in the world’s 
history. 

Let us not play the part of the Pharisee. Let 
us not leave to die on the other side of the road the 
man who has been wounded and robbed. 

The great Russian nation is rising through agony 
to a new and broader life. 

I am enough of an optimist to believe that events 
are moving toward better and higher things. But 
events can so move at the present time only if we of 
the American nation play our full part. If we give 
now of our abundance, if we step into the breach to 
serve the world, our page in history will be forever 
bright. 

When a man dies, he has to leave behind him all 
the material things of this life. He can’t take his 
money with him. But he can leave behind him also 
an ideal of service; and he can take with him, I 
believe, his unconquerable soul. 

1922 (Exact date missing)—Letter to President 
Harding —Most earnestly I urge that our Govern¬ 
ment undertake the work of feeding the famine dis- 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


48 

tricts of Russia. The task is too big for private 
interests under present conditions. 

Aside from presenting one of the greatest oppor¬ 
tunities for service in our generation, practical 
wisdom suggests effective help to Russia. That 
country, with its great area, large population and 
tremendous natural resources, is going to prove 
ultimately one of the main factors in restoring the 
world after the War. 

Moreover, let us not forget Russia’s very great 
services in the early part of the War. Let us re¬ 
member also that the Russian people at their best 
are kindly, generous, tolerant and idealistic. If 
helped in their hour of disaster, they will repay 
a thousandfold. Perhaps they will repay partly 
by making popular that spirit of tolerance which 
may do much to heal the world. 

August 14, 5 A.M. —Much, but not most, do I 
admire the Age of Athens—Athens with its almost 
perfect balance between mind and body, between 
horizontal and vertical lines—Athens, with its 
20,000 freemen and its 180,000 slaves—Athens, 
with its fine intelligence, its wonderful temples and 
its sapphire sea. 

More do I admire the Middle Ages—with its 
gropings for light, with its crusading spirit, with its 
pushing toward high heaven, out of sordid sur¬ 
roundings, the aspiration of its marvelous cathedrals, 
with its spirit of service and its first flickerings of 
the rights of the common man. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


49 


Most, however, do I admire the Renaissance— 
the Renaissance, when the joy of life leaped forth, 
when the tiny ships pushed into the unknown seas, 
when new routes were discovered and new worlds 
came within man’s ken. Vision and gladness, the 
spirit of adventure, breadth of mind—these were 
characteristic of the Renaissance. It was the real 
youth of the world. 

September 7, 10:05 P.M .—Now cometh the 
time when I live more and more in my son. Joy and 
illusion, high generosity and glad adventure, a period 
of irresponsibility and abundance, of noble and 
unrestrained impulse—these do I wish him at first. 
Education, brave association and travel, the un¬ 
folding of the mind to the marvelous world of God 
and man—all this before being “ bound on the 
wheel.” Then discipline, then achievement, then 
service. 

September —The human spirit is greater than 
bricks and mortar. .... 

October 15, 10 P.M.—In 1607, the settlement 
was made at Jamestown and in 1620 the landing at 
Plymouth. In a little over three hundred years, 
the English-speaking people in what is now the 
United States have become from almost nothing 
the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. 
Egypt can boast its thousands of years; the civiliza¬ 
tions of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys began 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


50 

before the dawn of recorded history and continued 
until five hundred years before the Christian Era; 
China and India each has its four thousand years 
or more, Western Europe its two thousand. Action 
and reaction are equal. Does the brief span of 
America’s rise to greatness involve a decline as 
rapid? .... 

Same, 10:15 P.M. —What will be America’s 
contribution to civilization? Will it be the wide 
diffusion of material well-being? Will it be the 
principle and the example of a great federal, demo¬ 
cratic republic? Will it be national righteousness? 
Will it be national unselfishness? Will it be the 
saving of European, of Western, civilization? Or 
will it be mechanical inventions, wealth, materialism ? 
Are we to have a great national art and literature? 
Or have we exhausted our energy in becoming rich? 
The great period of this country is at hand. What 
kind of greatness is it going to be? .... 

Same, 10:30 P.M. —Herodotus, I believe, was 
the first man who had leisure enough to think. 
Work and leisure—this is the solution which fertil¬ 
izes life. 

November 5, 1:10 P.M. (Train to North Con¬ 
way, New Hampshire)—No man with any imagina¬ 
tion can stand in the presence of the mountains or 
the sea and have any meanness left in his soul. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


5* 


November 10, 9:30 A.M. —(Ravine House)— 
The extent of the political overturn surprised almost 
everybody. Is Harding merely a back-wash or 
an eddy in the forward movement after the War? 

December 24, 9:30 A.M. —This is a very inter¬ 
esting world. Most small boys are likely to think 
that everything wonderful happened before they 
were born. My own son, though living at the 
time of the Great World War, regretted that he had 
not been born when the woods were full of Indians. 

We know, or ought to know, how wonderful is the 
present day. A great World War, the passing of 
the leadership of civilization to our own beloved 
country, the Russian Revolution (one of the greatest 
facts in all history) are a few of the things that may 
be mentioned. 

This is a time for consecration and for service. 
We must all try to help play the great part that 
Fate has given us the opportunity to play. We 
must try to forget the innumerable small vexations, 
the high cost of living, the speed and pressure which 
go with our day, and set our eyes on the Divine 
vision. 

Let our minds be open to the light of the new day— 
yet firmly rooted in those deep traditions of the 
human past. As the magnificent oaks and elms have 
their roots deep and wide under the earth, so their 
branches and their leaves turn to the cheerful air 
and the light of the day. 


52 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


We must guard against a certain superficiality 
that the rapid material growth of this country has, 
I fear, engendered in our people. 

Christmas Eve, 1922 —Hundreds of houses on 
Beacon Hill are lighted with candles. A man who 
lived nearly two thousand years ago, lived to be less 
than thirty-five years of age, was a citizen of a 
country poor and weak, of a country in bondage, 
in fact, to a great and materialistic empire, himself 
poor and despised by the worldly great, enduring 
finally the ignominy of the cross, today has the 
adoration of the wise and the unwise, of the great 
and the little. The light of his personality and life 
shines down the years with ever-increasing bright¬ 
ness. Where are the kings and emperors, where 
even are those who wrought by intellect alone? 
Struggling and perplexed humanity does not care. 
Caesar and Plato it can forget, Napoleon and the 
great Darwin, but not the lowly Nazarene. 

December 25,11 P.M. —I cannot endureapainted 
face. It is not that it suggests to me immorality, 
but that it suggests artificiality. If the complexion 
is false, how much is true? .... 

Same —Color is to me like food. It nourishes, 
sustains and cheers me. 

Same — I should like to preach a sermon from 
the text, “ Render unto Caesar the things that 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


53 

are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are 
God’s.” .... 

Same 11:10 P.M. —The Great War lighted in 
my soul a flame that still burns. 

Same — 11: 20 P.M. —Human nature is a fasci¬ 
nating and an endless study. 

Same — I love the motion, the quiet glide, of a 
canoe on a grass-ground stream. 

January 2, 1923, 7 A.M. —Money should be the 
servant and not the master. Yet what a heart¬ 
breaking struggle it sometimes is to get enough to 
meet our needs or fancied needs. Let us not forget 
that life is life rather than the “ scale of living.” 
Running around like a squirrel in a circular cage 
trying to earn enough so as to be able to spend more 
is the poorest fun in the world. 

January 21, 9:25 A.M. —Sir Robert Horne, 
Chancellor of the British Exchequer, is quoted as 
saying that France’s occupation of the Ruhr may 
lead to a collapse of European civilization such as 
the world has never known. England, because of 
the failure of the purchasing power of her customers, 
is carrying an almost intolerable burden of unem¬ 
ployment, “ which strains her resources to the 
utmost and almost breaks the back of the state.” 

Associated Press dispatch says that the ten days 
military occupation of the Ruhr “ finds Europe 
dangerously near a social, economic and industrial 


54 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


abyss, over the edge of which France and Belgium, 
with their burden of war trappings, already may 
have disappeared/’ according to the view held in 
British official circles. 

February 12, 10:30 A.M. —Lincoln’s birthday. 
A great soul—a truly great man. His work has 
endured while the work of Bismarck, the “ man of 
blood and iron,” is turning to ashes. 

February 24, 11:35 P.M .—As I was returning 
from the Exeter Street Theatre tonight (walking 
along Beacon Street), I seemed to see a great figure 
of Christ across the sky. The apparition lasted 
several moments, and seemed very real. 

March 30, 6:45 A.M. —To my son, D-. 

Hold fast to your ideals; love truth; do some 
creative work; these are the perennial springs of 
happiness. 

May 4, 12:10 P.M .—The river valley civilizations 
of Mesopotamia and Egypt succeeded by the 
Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Rome. 
Foundation of Christianity. The Roman Empire 
succeeded by the Dark Ages and then by the Middle 
Ages. The Middle Ages followed by the Renais¬ 
sance and the Reformation. The French Revolu¬ 
tion and the Industrial Revolution. Democracy 
and Capitalist Civilization. The World War and 
the Russian Revolution. Decay of Capitalist Civil¬ 
ization and return of spiritual values? These seem 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


55 


to be the high lights along the path which our 
ancestors have trod and along which we ourselves 
are now treading. 

May 6, 11 A.M. —Here I wish to record that my 

brother-in-law, P-, and my sister, E-, are 

the two most generous and most unfaltering souls 
that I have known in my life on this earth. 

Same, 11:15 A.M. —The miracle is not that the 
sun stood still for Joshua on a certain day (which, 
of course, I don’t believe) but that it rises for us all 
every day. 

May 7, 7:30 A.M .—To judge a man fairly, we 
must try to understand his main object in life— 
what he is really trying to do or to be. Daniel 
Webster, with his large and passionate devotion to 
the Federal Union, was able to support many faults 
that would have overwhelmed a man of less caliber. 
He borrowed money, for instance, of his friends, and 
never paid it back; his relations with women were, 
to say the least, of a liberal nature. But what are 
these things in the sum total of his life and character? 
His single-minded devotion to his country and his 
large services to it make all the other things seem 
mere peccadillos. 

May 15, 8:30 A.M .—This is a period of great 
changes. Following the idealism and the exaltation 
of the War, has come a period of reaction, of doubt 
and of scepticism. Everything is being questioned. 




AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


56 

The comfortable, conventional 90’s of the preceding 
century seem very far away. Today, governments, 
economic systems, social systems, religious systems 
are being examined in the “ cold, gray dawn of the 
morning after.” Nothing is taken for granted. A 
distinguished writer and lecturer, Hilaire Belloc, 
announces unequivocally that the capitalistic system 
of society is “ doomed.” Irreligion is accepted 
almost as the sign of intelligence. The Russian 
Revolution still is in the “ red ” stage. Unrest, 
economic exhaustion, mental weariness are almost 
everywhere. 

Yet out of the seeming confusion, certain facts 
already have emerged. Beyond question, the United 
States has swung into the position of world leader¬ 
ship. The Russian Revolution marks a great stage 
(how great nobody is able to estimate at the moment) 
not only in the evolution of the Russian people but 
in human history. Out of the atheism of the Bol¬ 
shevists may yet come a great, constructive, healing 
religious movement. The world is in a state of 
great unrest, but it is alive. 

Memorial Day Address, May 30, 1923— 

Veterans of the Civil and Spanish Wars: Mem¬ 
bers of the Legion: Friends: Slowly and pain¬ 
fully, but nevertheless surely, the surface wounds 
of the Great War are healing. In this country and 
to a large extent in Europe, those who served in the 
great citizen armies have returned to the vocations of 
peace. Much of the devastated region in France 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


57 


and elsewhere has been restored. Industry has 
resumed, taking a broad view, its normal activities. 
Moreover, as the War recedes into the distance, the 
mellow haze of past events begins to form on the 
horizon; the fierce hatred, the anguish, the bereave¬ 
ments are softened. In due time, only the fortitude, 
the self-sacrifice and the love of those who served, 
both men and women, will remain. Such are the 
beneficent processes of Nature. 

I have been speaking of the surface wounds of 
the War. But, my friends, these are not all. They 
are very far from all. There are wounds that 
go deeper, there are changes more profound, than 
the things of which I have been speaking. As I 
said to you last year, we are living in one of the great, 
vital periods in the world’s history—in one of the 
periods of great change. No one today, of course, 
can measure the ultimate scope and power of the 
mighty forces now at work in the world. 

When I was a boy and a very young man—in the 
nineties of the preceding century—everything that 
was was accepted as being right. There was, as we 
say in physics, a condition of stable equilibrium. 
Of course, we had business—business “ as usual ”— 
we had the presidential and the congressional elec¬ 
tions, with the tariff or “ free silver ” as the leading 
issues, we had the usual family and social life. We 
did not care much about Europe or any other part 
of the world outside the United States—except as a 
place to amuse one’s self; and Europe certainly did 
not think much about us. 


58 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


The Spanish War startled us out of this self- 
satisfied tranquillity. After we got over our delight 
at Dewey defeating the Spaniards at Manila Bay, we 
woke up to find ourselves possessed of islands off the 
coast of China, islands in the Caribbean, a protec¬ 
torate over a Cuba and a few other things. When 
we were told that we had become a “ world power,” 
we rubbed our eyes like a small boy just waked up 
out of a sound sleep, but decided that being called 
that was not, at any rate, an insult. 

After the Spanish War, came the great era of big 
business, of trust-forming and “ trust-busting.” The 
elder J. P. Morgan was the typical business man of 
this period, and Theodore Roosevelt was the most 
progressive and idealistic of the men in public life. 
Both men, in their different ways, had great vision, 
imagination and patriotism. 

All this time, the British people, in their little 
islands, succeeded in maintaining the first position 
in the world as a colonial power, as a manufacturing 
and trading nation and as the world’s ocean carrier 
and the world’s banker. 

Then came the World War. In number of men 
and nations engaged, in loss of life, in financial and 
economic cost and in almost every other respect, 
this war proved to be in a class by itself. Unlike 
the case in practically all the wars which had pre¬ 
ceded it, the entire populations of the leading bel¬ 
ligerent countries devoted themselves to one purpose 
only: the waging of the war. A spirit of exaltation 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


59 

which rubbed out all the ordinary interests of life 
made this possible. 

But, my friends, the work of soldiers and civilians 
is not done. Your country and the world calls you 
again to service—to service for the rest of your lives. 

Certain simple, obvious duties we have: to 
venerate those who sacrificed their lives, to care 
generously for the sick and the unfortunate, to 
mingle with the fragrance of the spring the fragrance 
of reverence and of love. For such purposes as 
these, is this day set apart. 

But I wish to speak particularly of the great 
tasks, and of the great opportunities also, which lie 
ahead of us. Vast problems are pressing for settle¬ 
ment—problems involving, perhaps, the very exist¬ 
ence of civilization itself. The peculiar exaltation 
that goes with war has passed. The only possible 
substitute is conscious, intelligent, unselfish devotion. 

It is easier to tear down than to build up. It is a 
shorter job. It requires, in the large, much less 
imagination, self control and patience. Will not we 
all say yes if I ask: is it not the daily grind that 
wearies us? Yet the days of monotony may be 
crowned with the years of accomplishment. The 
years of service may be hallowed with a better 
country and a better world because we have lived 
in it. 

I predict that the most distinguished men of the 
coming generation in this country will be those men 
who are most conspicuous for their services to the 
world at large. For the problems which confront 


6o 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


us today are of a world-wide character. Personal 
self-seeking or even national self-seeking will be 
discountenanced. 

I have spoken of the self-satisfied tranquillity 
of the nineties. Today, everything is being ques¬ 
tioned. A distinguished lecturer has said recently 
that in almost every country in Europe the form of 
government is being called into question. Russia 
and China, of course, are in a state of revolution or 
of civil war. All over the world, the so-called dark 
races are showing an ominious unrest. Even in 
our own country—at the moment the one great 
stable force in an almost fluid world—the discon¬ 
tented elements are very active. 

Discontent with government, however, is only a 
small part of the story. Is our economic and social 
structure just? Does it result in the greatest good 
to the greatest number? Is the so-called capi¬ 
talistic system of industry helpful, on balance, or 
has it become a cancer—slowly eating away the 
healthy tissues of the body politic? What does 
religion mean to us? As a matter of fact, is there 
any God in this universe in which we live? My 
friends, these are not flippant nor irreverent remarks 
but serious questions which millions of men all over 
the world are asking themselves today. And the 
great tide of democracy, swelled by the service of 
millions of men in the War, will try to find answers 
to these questions—the best answers that it can. 

I am not of those who believe in shutting their 
eyes to what is going on around them. All the talk 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


61 


in the world about “ normalcy ” will not bring back 
the old day. Christ reserved His most contemp¬ 
tuous comment not for the sinners and the publicans 
but for those who had eyes and would not see. 

All of us here are indeed fortunate to be citizens 
of a country which has come out of the War strong 
enough to be of the largest service to mankind. 
Our economic and financial resources are not only 
unimpaired but greatly increased; our population is 
great in numbers, intelligent and energetic. On us 
devolves the duty and the privilege of playing the 
principal part in the reconstruction of the world after 
the War. 

For a thousand years, western Europe carried the 
flag of civilization. The Crusades of the people of 
western Europe to the sepulcher of our Lord were 
but the fore-runners of many other crusades—for 
knowledge, for enlightenment, for progress and for 
service to mankind. The beautiful mediaeval 
churches of France, of England, of Italy and of 
Spain all testify not only to the glory of God but to 
the aspirations of men toward the best and highest 
things in this life. The Renaissance and the Refor¬ 
mation added more to the wealth of the world than 
all the coal and iron ever dug out of the earth. Who 
were those men who ventured in tiny ships into 
the seven seas? Who discovered a new world? 
Who were the men who planted the seeds of a mighty 
nation on our own inhospitable shores? They were 
the children of the Renaissance; they were the chil¬ 
dren of Europe. 


62 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


We have eyes to see, my friends. We have hands 
and heads and hearts. Let us turn our faces to the 
new day. Let us cast away provincialism—as 
Christ cast out the devils and set them into the 
swine. Let us forget any pride we may have had in 
our “ splendid isolation.” What is the boast that 
we are sufficient unto ourselves? It is the boast of 
the Pharisee. He gave thanks to God, you may 
remember, that he was not as other men. The 
great light of Christianity—the light that lighted the 
world—was not for him. He had eyes to see, but 
he would not see. 

I should not be surprised, my friends, to see in 
our lifetime a great religious movement emerge from 
the destruction and desolation left by the War. 
Of what avail are treaties, foreign loans, attemps at 
economic, financial and social reconstruction if the 
spirit of love is absent? Underlying all questions 
of boundaries, reparations, inter-allied debts and 
reconstruction is the necessity for the gospel of 
Jesus—the gospel of love and of service. 

Europe, shattered by the War, is in need of a 
Good Samaritan. The world needs intelligent and 
unselfish leadership. It needs the best brains and 
the best hearts that can be found in the wide world. 
Let each one of us resolve from today that he will 
keep his eyes open to the light of the new day, that 
he will be proud to serve with the humility of him 
who died on the cross and that nothing helpful is 
too great to daunt us nor too small to merit our 
devotion. 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


63 


Christ went up into a high mountain. He felt 
the power of his personality. He could be an earthly 
king. He could be bowed down to by the worldly- 
wise and the great. Then the Devil came to him 
and showed him the cities and the kingdoms of this 
world. 

“ All these will I give thee,” said the Devil, “ if 
thou wilt but follow Me.” 

“ Get thee behind me, Satan,” was Christ’s 
answer. 

His leadership was to be not worldly but spiritual. 
His work was to be not domination but service. 

June 11 —The Austrian internationally-guaran¬ 
teed loan, H- says, is the most significant piece of 

financing since the Anglo-French dollar loan. 

Same —Human beings are not, in my opinion, 
adjusted to the noises and the confusion of today. 
A brief few years cover the experience of the human 
species with telephones, automobile horns and “ blow¬ 
outs,” and siren whistles. 

June 13 —The variety of races makes the world 
more interesting. English, French, Italian, Spanish, 
Russian, Japanese, Chinese and many others, too,— 
each of these races has contributed something of its 
own, and is contributing still, to the great human 
story. 

June 19 —Went up in a hydroplane from 
Nantasket Beach, circled Boston Light, and 
returned. 




6 4 


AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


June 24, 5:45 A.M. —As I grow older, human 
nature impresses me more and more. Almost every 
morning for years, I have walked to business from 
the North Station and back at night. Thousands 
of others do the same. I have wondered often why 
more of them do not “ go off on a tangent.” Per¬ 
haps a combination of a sense of duty, of habit and 
of fear keeps the faithful animals in the accustomed 
groove. 

Autumn, 1923 —Jesus seems to have been the 
first to substitute service for domination as a con¬ 
trolling motive. 

Sunday, November 4, 7:45 A.M. —Cast out 
from your heart all hatred and all fear. 

Sunday, November 25, 4:15 P.M. —Within a 
few weeks, our perennial garden, now “ cut down,” 
will be covered with a blanket of snow. Many 
years have I seen this come to pass. Yet I know that 
in the early spring, the yellow jonquils and the 
white Narcissi will thrust themselves above the 
ground. Later, will come the “ Darwin ” tulips 
(at first clear red and clear yellow but later with 
delicate pencilings appearing on their petals); then 
will come in gay procession the irises, blue and 
yellow (including the pale blue “ Pallida ” and 
later the delicate, velvety, many-colored Japanese 
iris), the pink, white and red peonies, redolent of 
the full time of spring, the fox-glove, the blue lark- 



AN OCCASIONAL DIARY 


65 


spur, the hollyhocks and the phlox. If this is not 
one of God’s miracles, what sign shall we seek? 


December 6, 8:55 P.M. —How have the simplicity 
and love of Jesus been perverted by so-called Chris¬ 
tians! Of course, Christianity, if it was to grow, 
could not work always among the mounts and 
olive groves of Palestine or chiefly among pastoral 
people. If it was to be of much use, it had to front 
and grapple with the world. But how far from the 
simple doctrine of love and service seem the fiendish 
practices of the Inquisition and the cruel, dogmatic 
ideas of Calvin! How alien seem the pride, worldli¬ 
ness and venality of prelates, the costly and showy 
altars, the mumming services! O man, in thy 
pompous pride, thou art always building boasting 
Babels! Thine eyes cannot endure the ideal in its 
naked beauty; they must see also the tinsel garments, 
the cheap jewels of the passing hour. 

Jaffrey, N. H., December 22, 6 P.M. —Climbed, 
today, Mount Monadnock. A day almost as warm 
as spring, though cloudy. The mountain trails were 
dry but not frozen. At the summit, a magnificent 
panorama of the New Hampshire mountains. 

December 31, 1923 —Tomorrow, the new year. 
Then the spring, with its apple blossoms, and the 
summer with its many colored flowers. 


THE END. 












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